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CHAPEL HILL --- No. 17 North Carolina completed its first sweep of 2014 as the Tar Heels topped North Florida 8-5 on Sunday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium. Freshman
Zac Gallen earned his first win with a solid 6.0 innings for the Tar Heels in his third start,
allowing six hits and three earned runs while striking out four.

The game started with some early action by North Florida
(4-6) when the Ospreys got two singles and took advantage of a fielder's
choice, a wild pitch and two Carolina errors to score two runs in the top of
the first inning.

UNC (7-3) wouldn't answer until the bottom of the fourth after
Skye Bolt drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a North Florida error. Korey
Dunbar also drew a walk from North Florida's starter Bryan Baker to set up
pinch-hitter Michael Massardo. Massardo laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance
both runners into scoring position before a sacrifice fly from Tyler Ramirez
scored Bolt and pulled UNC within one.

After a tough first inning, Gallen buckled down and allowed
just one hit through the next four innings. In the sixth inning, though, the
Ospreys tallied three more hits off the freshman and got two more across the
plate with a two-out, two-run single to right field by UNF shortstop
Kyle Brooks.

The Tar Heels responded immediately in the bottom of the
inning with some two-out action of their own. After a leadoff double by Michael
Russell, North Florida made a pitching change and called for Dan VanSickle, who struck out
the next two batters he faced.

That was all VanSickle would get, though, as UNC worked
through three North Florida pitchers with five hits, one walk and five runs
before the inning ended to take a 6-4 lead. Landon Lassiter had the big blow in the inning as he drove in a pair of runs to break a 4-4 tie.

Carolina would add two more runs in both the seventh
and eighth innings to secure the win and the series sweep. The last run came
off a solo home run by freshman Joe Dudek, the first of his UNC career.

Chris McCue got his fourth save of the year with a scoreless
appearance in which he allowed just one hit and struck out three through 1.2
innings. McCue got out of a jam in the eighth when UNF put the tying runs on base with one out. The junior closer got James Abbatinozzi to line out to Bolt in center, who threw behind Alex Smith for a double play to end the inning.

VanSickle took the loss for the Ospreys, dropping to 1-1 on the
season.

Carolina will be back in action on Wednesday, March 5, when
the Tar Heels take on Davidson at 3 p.m. Tickets are available at the Boshamer
box office and on GoHeels.com.